Cycling

Brisbane City Council has unveiled plans for a new bikeway that hangs above the Brisbane River in Indooroopilly, in inner south-west Brisbane. The new bridge will provide cyclists and pedestrians with their own link between the Western Freeway bikeway, the Brisbane River Loop and the University of Queensland / St. Lucia bikeway via a bridge which will hug the western bank of the Brisbane River to the south west of the Indooropilly road, rail and...

Just over a week ago the City of Melbourne released the first two discussion papers as part of its Transport Strategy Refresh . These focused on the themes of 'Walking' and 'City Space' with Urban Melbourne providing commentary via this article and during Episode 10 of the Weekly podcast. The ambitious plan will look to examples from abroad such as Barcelona's proposed "superblock" strategy which creates a series of small neighbourhoods around...

Docklands based not-for-profit organisation Good Cycles has been running a crowd funding campaign to raise $40,000 for a Bike Community on Harbour Esplanade. Ending on June 27th the campaign has so far generated $24,936.60 in pledges. The initiative has already received support from The Lord Mayor's Charitable Fund and the Bank of Melbourne in addition to Places Victoria's pledge to match every dollar pledged up to $20,000. Docklands Community...

The City of Moreland at August's council's meeting has rejected a proposal to add what has been dubbed "anti-dooring" bike lanes on Sydney Road which would have seen painted bicycle lanes placed either side of the tram lanes. The council has reportedly voted to lobby the State government and VicRoads to investigate building separated bike lanes on the road instead. Perfect timing. While much of the media focus has been on bikes on Sydney Road -...

Australian governments heavily subsidise car, bus and train commuting, but not cycling. Yet a new survey shows many workers would consider riding to work if they got paid for it, and most would even support it if they didn’t participate, because of the wider benefits for cutting road congestion. The list of existing transport subsidies is long. Fuel tax receipts have fallen so low that they now fail to pay for road-building programs as they once did. Company car concessions remain one of the largest distortions in the Australian tax code and a severe hit to the federal budget.

I was cycling through Preston the other day, riding to the left of a lane shared with cars as the “bicycle lane” was full of parked cars. A motorist in a four-wheel drive overtook me at some speed with less than a foot between us. I came up to his window at the next red light, tapped on it, and asked him whether he was aware that he’d passed me so narrowly. “Nah, I gave you plenty of room.” “You should have been in the bike lane.” “You f***ing...

Between 1% and 3% of Australian commuters are out on the roads today proving cycling is often the fastest transport choice in Australian cities. Why don’t more people join them? It is not for a lack of interest. Australians have already stocked their households with an average of 1.6 bikes. The reason most of those bikes gather dust in garages is that few of us are prepared to risk our lives riding near cars, as Australian traffic and planning authorities expect us to do. Now even the US has decided to make it easier for cyclists. Will Australia ever catch up?

Recently at Urban Melbourne the transport focus has been on the big ticket modes: rail and bus. Whilst their mode share has increased steadily over the last decade, the underlying trend towards inner city living has seen a dramatic uptake for the humble bicycle. Fueled by rising petrol costs, an increasing interest in exercise, and a population explosion of hipsters in the inner north, Melburnians have been blessed with a plethora of new cycle...